A conventional pinball machine has a generally horizontal playfield over which a pinball rolls. A variety of devices are typically incorporated on the playfield with which the ball interacts, such as drop-targets, roll-over switches, bumpers, spinner lanes, kickers and the like. At least one set of flippers is also ordinarily provided on the playfield, which are operated by a player using external control buttons.
The object of the game is to keep the ball in play as long as possible, while at the same time amassing as high a score as possible. A numerical display typically records the score, with a plurality of such displays being provided for a number of competing players. The numerical displays are almost universally set in the back glass assembly of the pinball machine. The back glass also has the usual game score, credit and ball-in-play displays, and may in addition contain some of the electronics of the machine.
Designers of pinball machines seek innovations which will spark the interest of new as well as old players, while also challenging the skill of veteran pinball aficionados. Pinball machines have thus shown a continual development of new play features, such as point jackpots which are reached only after the sequential engagement of particular targets, and the integration of audio/visual stimulae with the play of the game.
Innovations in the playfields themselves have also been effected, such as the use of elevated ball pathways and bi-level playfields. U.S. Pats. Nos. 4,375,286 and 4,606,545 are representative of the same. The playfield of the game, whether bi-level or not, has almost always been in a generally horizontal plane, however. That is, the playfield, or playfields, have a slight slope downwardly (rear to front) for a relatively slow fall of the ball under the force of gravity.
Some substantially vertical playfields for game-balls have also been developed. None is known to use balls the size and mass of a pinball, and most simply have the ball fall in an uncontrolled manner through a maze of pins, pegs and the like. The pachinko game is one such vertical playfield device, in which a small size (i.e., low mass) ball is shot into play, and then rapidly falls through a sequence of pegs, spinners and the like to a collection trough. It will be noted that the fall of the ball is completely uncontrolled in the classic pachinko game. A recent variation on the pachinko game has included player-actuated flippers, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,897,951. The skill element of "making a shot" with the flippers is substantially missing from the '951 device, however. The '951 balls also appear to be of the low-mass type typical of pachinko games.
While pinball machines with horizontal playfields are known, and pachinko-type machines with vertical playfields are known, no pinball machine having both a horizontal and vertical playfield appears to have been developed, until now.